Bridge crash could have been prevented

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

Updated 8:48 am, Thursday, December 6, 2012

The dividers on Doyle Dr. (yellow) seen from a bus stop will replace the divider on Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, December 5, 2012.

The dividers on Doyle Dr. (yellow) seen from a bus stop will replace the divider on Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, December 5, 2012.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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The center divide on Doyle Drive is similar to the Golden Gate Bridge's proposed movable median.

The center divide on Doyle Drive is similar to the Golden Gate Bridge's proposed movable median.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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The Golden Gate Bridge was shut down for almost an hour Wednesday morning. (Daniel Robinson/Courtesy)

The Golden Gate Bridge was shut down for almost an hour Wednesday morning. (Daniel Robinson/Courtesy)

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Emergency vehicles drive on the southbound lanes of the Golden Gate Bridge as northbound traffic is stopped after a crash, December 5, 2012.

Emergency vehicles drive on the southbound lanes of the Golden Gate Bridge as northbound traffic is stopped after a crash, December 5, 2012.

Photo: CBS San Francisco

Bridge crash could have been prevented

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A head-on collision on the Golden Gate Bridge that injured three women Wednesday and tied up traffic for hours could have been prevented, bridge officials acknowledged, had a long-planned movable median barrier been in place.

Drawings for the cement barrier, which would divide northbound and southbound lanes, have been available to the Golden Gate Bridge District since 1997, when engineers first proposed a detailed scheme to prevent head-on collisions. Funding has been in place since 2007.

But the project has dragged for years, and district officials now say the earliest a barrier could be in place is 2014.

Officials say they've been hamstrung by funding delays and bureaucratic reviews of the $26.5 million median's impact on the environment, the view, traffic and the landmark bridge.

"There have been delays, but they are part of the process," said Mary Currie, the bridge district's spokeswoman. "I would say we're continuing on track. We had to find the money; we found the money. We had to go into the environmental process and follow all those twists and turns."

John Stein, a San Jose attorney who represents Grace Dammann, a doctor paralyzed by a 2008 head-on collision on the bridge, said the bridge district's appointed Board of Directors has dragged its feet.

"I don't think it is bureaucracy - I think it is a political problem that is not being addressed. I can't get to the bottom of it," Stein said. "As a matter of public policy, why are they fighting so vigorously to not put safety devices in place? It is like not putting an airbag in a car.

"I think that if some of those bridge people have their way, they aren't ever going to have the barrier on there," Stein said.

3 with minor injuries

Wednesday's accident happened shortly after 8 a.m. on the north end of the bridge when a Lexus heading south at 45 mph swerved through the plastic yellow pylons that divide the northbound and southbound lanes. It smacked into a Volkswagen sedan heading north at 35 mph, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The Volkswagen spun across both northbound lanes and was hit by a Honda Civic, also traveling north, sending wreckage across the roadway. Both northbound lanes and at least two of the four southbound lanes were closed for an hour. Three people suffered minor injuries, the CHP said.

Currie acknowledged the crash could have been prevented - or at least contained - had the oft-discussed movable median been in place.

But that doesn't mean the crash, the injuries and the delay would not have happened, Currie said.

"Accidents are not going to go away, but the severity will decrease," she said.

"With a movable median barrier in place, all of the data and evaluation (show that) it will only eliminate the crossover accidents," Currie said. "If the person driving southbound this morning crashed again, they would have deflected off the barrier and they might have created another type of accident."

In 2007, the bridge district obtained $20 million in funding from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's transportation planning and financing agency, allowing it to proceed with the project. Other funding includes $1.4 million from the federal government and $5.1 million in toll revenue.

'Poking along'

Wind testing was completed, and consultants were hired in 2009 for required environmental studies, Currie said. In 2010, the reports were sent to Caltrans for review. Disputes over the parts of the report concerning the portion of the barrier that extends north up the Waldo Grade on Caltrans-controlled highway delayed the studies for months, Currie said.

But the preliminary studies are now completed, and the final design is under way.

"It's been poking along," Currie said.

The foot-wide barrier will be similar to the wider movable median barrier being used in the Presidio Parkway tunnel on Doyle Drive, southeast of the bridge, and built by the same company, Barrier Systems Inc. It uses what some call "a zipper truck," a device that slides the segments of concrete barrier into new positions, allowing the lane configuration to be rearranged relatively quickly.

Between 1971 and 2007, 36 fatal accidents occurred on the bridge, Currie said, with 16 of them head-on collisions. The last fatal head-on was in 2001.

"Compared to other undivided freeways, the Golden Gate has a fairly low accident rate," she said. "However, the median barrier is still a project we see as very important in preventing crossover collisions."

But Stein was skeptical.

"They always say it is right around the corner when there's an accident," Stein said. "Then it isn't."

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